"What do you keep in here? Why have you got zombie creatures? Good guys do not have zombie creatures. Rule one, basic story telling!"

— Clara Oswald

Written by Stephen Thompson.The Doctor decides to shut down the TARDIS' shields and put her in basic mode for a bit, so that Clara can drive and she and Clara might get to like each other a bit better. The TARDIS is almost immediately caught by an intergalactic salvage crew. An odd gadget leaves a burn mark on Clara's hand in the process, and amidst the chaos Clara is lost in the depths of the TARDIS. The salvagers — two brothers, Gregor and Bram Van Baalen, and an android named Tricky — intend to sell the TARDIS for scrap, but the Doctor threatens to destroy it by putting it in lockdown and activating the self destruct if the salvage crew doesn't help him find Clara. Meanwhile, something lurks in the dark halls of the TARDIS: staggering, zombie-like creatures that chase Clara through the hallways.

After a lot of running through corridors, Clara ends up in the library, where she briefly spots a book about the history of the Time War and sees a few very interesting things in it.note (Just why, and how, a book about it even exists, let alone how it can have detailed information, isn't explained just yet. Though given that the TARDIS archives console rooms that haven't been created yet, this doesn't seem that unusual.) Bram gets himself killed by trying to get too close to the console core. Gregor Van Baalen, still carrying the Idiot Ball, try to steal bits of TARDIS regardless (and despite Tricky's protests) and end up hurting her so much her defence systems run Tricky's arm through with a metal beam. It's revealed that, against all appearances, Tricky isn't a fabricated android; he's the youngest Van Baalen brother, whose siblings played a trick on him after an accident that gave him amnesia and required parts of his body to be replaced with cybernetic implants. The Doctor knew all along, but had more pressing matters on his mind. Not that the TARDIS self-destruct mechanism actually exists — that was just a fib — but the fact that the zombie creatures are future versions of Clara and the remaining two brothers. Burned to smouldering husks and mad with pain, they try to grab the gang. The brothers succeed in getting rid of their future selves with the tried and trusted method of throwing them into the Eye of Harmony. Unfortunately for them, this results in their own transformation.

The Doctor takes Clara to the very core of the TARDIS, where — on the verge of tears — he finally comes clean to her about the mystery of her existence and her multiple deaths. She's extremely freaked out by it, and after a while, she counters with her own reveal. In that Time War book, she saw a thing or two about his name. However, Clara's burn mark reveals to the Doctor that he has one option left — resetting the entire timeline using the gadget that burned Clara in the first place. He pushes himself through a time crack in absolute agony, shares a brief conversation with his past self, and manages to reset everything. Clara never even knows it happened. In the aftermath, the Doctor asks Clara how safe she feels around him — just to make sure — and the brothers are back to life and not quite as mean this time around. A previously damaged photograph near Tricky's cot, which only depicted his brothers and father, has now been restored and includes Tricky standing to the side.

Bad Future: The creatures in the episode are severely burnt echoes of the salvage crew, the Doctor, and Clara had they not escaped from the Eye of Harmony room.

Bigger on the Inside: Although this trope is prevalent enough to normally not be worth mentioning, this episode showcases just how big the inside of the TARDIS is. One of the rooms contains a collapsing star, as well as enough space so that people entering the room can survive the heat for a brief period. The Doctor claims that the space inside the TARDIS is infinite.

The TARDIS turns its architecture into a labyrinth to prevent the salvagers from escaping with its circuits. Clara tries to leave the echo control room and ends up back inside.

In general, the TARDIS has windows into space when the outside is both smaller and windowless, has a mountain range, and wildly varying construction material (including stone walls in one section). Justified by the fact that the TARDIS can literally manufacture anything.

When Clara spills some of the liquefied knowledge while hiding in the library, the voices of Gallifreyans, including Rassilon himself, can be heard.

The Doctor shushing Clara, touching her face, then walking away uses similar motions and camera angles as a scene with the Third Doctor and Sarah Jane in "Death to the Daleks". Clara was named after Elisabeth Clara Sladen, who played Sarah Jane.

Clara also finds a bamboo-handled umbrella, which belonged to the Seventh Doctor.

The Victorian library and steampunk History of the Time War book recall the Eighth Doctor's aesthetic.

This is neither the first time the TARDIS's occupants have faced future versions of themselves nor the first time that the Doctor was able to exploit a Time Loop to tell himself how to solve the problem, both of which happened in Time And Space, although this episode's time loop isn't stable, unlike that episode's.

Everything Sensor: The "intelligent sensor," to the point that it quite literally interprets a device which can make everything as "everything you ever wanted."

Exact Time to Failure: The TARDIS will self-destruct in an hour—wait, make that thirty minutes. Do we want to try for fifteen?

Exact Words: The Doctor promises the Van Baalen brothers the "salvage of a lifetime". They assume he means the ship, but he never specifies what it is or even if he'd give it to them. (He actually means Clara, and no, he's not handing her over.)

Clara picks up a cylinder which burns her hands and she drops it. The Doctor later identifies an identical cylinder in the possession of the Salvage Pirates. But if it's there, why was it on the TARDIS earlier?

Clara (temporarily) learns the Doctor's name, playing into this series's plot arc.

The song played by the Van Baalen brothers is "Fire Woman" by The Cult. Seeing what happens to Clara later on...

Jerkass: Both the Van Baalen brothers show shades of this, but particularly Gregor.

Just Between You and Me: Invoked twice, between Clara and the Doctor (which shows how far they are from truly trusting each other). First, Clara demands to know what the zombies are when they're trapped in the Eye of Harmony room with no means of escape. Second, when he and Clara are stuck in the engine room without any apparent way forward, the Doctor snaps and demands of Clara to know who she really is.

Just One Second Out of Sync: The "echoes" of the control room. Each one is in the same place but ever so slightly out of sync with the others. Clara is trapped in one with a zombie while the Doctor is trapped with the brothers in another, able to see Clara's shadow moving but not Clara herself. He eventually manages to pull Clara through after pinpointing her location.

Karma Houdini: Due to the reset, the Van Baalen brothers never get any comeuppance for making Tricky believe he was an android. Keep in mind, this was their little brother, who required numerous cybernetic implants and was left totally amnesiac after a major industrial accident. Despite this, they still decided to take advantage of him, out of jealousy that he was chosen to be the next Captain and because they were bored. Granted, it's not as bad as most Houdinis (some of whom escape karma despite committing murder) and Gregor shows signs of getting better in the end, but even so.

Though seeing as Gregor seems to become kinder post-reset, it's possible he'll eventually tell Tricky the truth.

Leap of Faith: When their path to the engine room is blocked by a seemingly impassable cliff, the Doctor reasons that the TARDIS is simply trying to scare them away and won't actually let them come to harm. They jump and wind up in the engine room no worse for wear.

Let's Split Up, Gang: Suggested by Gregor, as he wants to start stripping the TARDIS while the Doctor and Tricky are busy looking for Clara.

Nice Hat: The Doctor makes mention of the Time Lords' famous headgear.

No Hugging, No Kissing: Lampshaded when the Doctor gets a slug in the face after hugging Clara. Turns out that's not what she's pissed about.

Offscreen Teleportation: The Doctor manages this in the beginning by going from buried under a pile of rubble to joining the brothers in their huddled conversations about him in the space of a few seconds.

Pet the Dog: Lampshaded when Gregor refuses to cut Tricky's arm off. Possibly subverted after The Reveal that Tricky's not an android. Gregor likely didn't want to cut Tricky's arm off because it would have revealed that there was flesh and bone underneath, thus forcing them to confess that they've been lying to him the entire time.

Quizzical Tilt: More foreshadowing when Clara and one of the zombies do this with each other.

Scenery Gorn: The TARDIS gets the crap beaten out of it this episode...

Schmuck Bait: Clara is wandering the TARDIS alone and happens upon a door with a flashing red light above it, opened by pressing a Big Red Button. Clara considers the implications of a big red light and a big red button before doing the obvious.

Clara: Red flashing light. Means something bad. "Get out of here fast?" Or possibly, "Whatever you do, don't open this door." [hems and haws before pressing the button]

Screaming Woman: Played straight when Clara is about to be killed by a zombie only to be saved by the Doctor.

Self-Destruct Mechanism: The TARDIS has one, which is used as a threat to keep the salvage crew in line. Remember Rule 1: The Doctor lies.

The cylinder at the start that burns Clara's hand gives the Doctor the idea to send it back in time to prevent the TARDIS's destruction in the first place.

Also, the creation of the time zombies. The zombies chase the group into the Eye of Harmony room, and the radiation is what causes them to become the zombies.

Stealth Pun: The song played on the TARDIS is The Cult's "Fire Woman." Clara gets chased by a future fiery version of herself.

Temporal Paradox: Exploited. To avoid creating their radiation-burned future zombie selves, the Doctor has everyone avoid doing the precise actions frozen into the visage of their future selves. Clara and the Doctor succeed, but the brothers slip up and cause their future to pass.

Time Bomb: In order to force the Van Baalens to help him rescue Clara, the Doctor activates the TARDIS' self-destruct sequence and sets it to 60 minutes. Subverted when it turns out the TARDIS doesn't have a self-destruct; the Doctor was bluffing. Then Double Subverted when it turns out that the engine really is overloading.

Time Crash: Due to engine damage, the past and future is spilling out of the TARDIS, replaying moments of the Doctor and Clara that have already gone by and projecting radiation-borne zombies of their future selves that have yet to be created.

They Killed Kenny Again: A future version of Clara got again turned into an insane monster. The girl has the worst luck.

Tomato in the Mirror: Tricky starts off thinking he's an android. It turns out he's a human with a few artificial body parts who lost his memory in an accident.

Token Good Teammate: Tricky. He's the only one in the salvage group who actually feels the TARDIS's pain to boot. Becomes especially profound when he's revealed to be a human whose only cybernetic parts are the ones to restore his eyes and voice.

Clara gets REALLY upset with the Doctor about the beings he keeps trapped in the TARDIS. Except he doesn't actually keep them; they're echoes of the future.

The Van Baalen brothers barely seem to hold back similar reactions when they learn that the "TARDIS self-destruct countdown" was a fake.

White Void Room: The TARDIS engine room is white in all directions, the only feature being the engine that has already exploded and is trapped in that moment.

Write Back to the Future: The Doctor inscribes the words BIG FRIENDLY BUTTON on the Magno-Grab control device that he knows is going to end up in the TARDIS control room, where Clara will pick it up out of curiosity and burn the words onto her palm. This gives him the inspiration to deliver the message in person during the next loop.

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